Public Humanities

From the Office of the Provost, this page documents rules and procedures on research involving human subjects at Brown University.

Information from Research at Brown on including children in research

"Since 2008, students from the Brown Center for Public Humanities have worked with Professor Anne Valk on collaborative projects to preserve and present the cultural heritage and social history of the Fox Point neighborhood. An archival collection of oral history interviews with current and past residents has formed the basis for websites, exhibits, and public projects. Approximately 75 interviews are archived at Brown’s library and are available for use by community members, scholars, students, and teachers."

"Mashapaug Pond and Reservoir Triangle Collection This collection contains oral history interviews, images, and research materials gathered by Brown University students. The project seeks to uncover personal stories related to the natural, social, and cultural history of Mashapaug Pond (Providence, RI) and the neighborhoods that surround it, using oral history and community arts,. Materials were collected initially as part of a fall 2011 class, AMST1903G, Oral History and Community Memory that was co-taught by Anne Valk and Holly Ewald. Other materials were added by students in subsequent courses and as part of independent projects."

This collection contains oral history interviews with longtime members of the Brown University Library staff, in celebration of the Rockefeller’s Library’s fiftieth anniversary in 2014. The interviews were conducted by Brown librarians Carina Cournoyer and Karen Bouchard. Staff members represent a variety of jobs within the library and topics covered include library spaces, professional dress, impressions of the Rock as a building, technology changes over the years, the changing role of libraries and library staff, and amusing or interesting memories of working in the library.

"Initiated by the Pembroke Center Associates in 1982, these oral histories record the experiences of the women of Brown University and Pembroke College." Includes materials maintained in Brown University Archives.

"Initiated by the Pembroke Center Associates in 1982, these oral histories record the experiences of the women of Brown University and Pembroke College." Includes digitized interviews.

The Center for Community Change created the Community Organizer Genealogy Project in order "to document the development of community organizing, the development of individual organizers and the connections among organizers, organizations and networks." The project was led by Don Elmer who also interviewed the majority of the community organizers during 2008-2010. The project created 100 oral history interviews with community organizers throughout the United States who worked in all aspects of community organizing: neighborhood organizations, labor unions, civil rights, human rights, religious communities. The interviews together provide a history of community organizing during the 20th century as well as the effect of community organizers on the history of the United States.

A project of the National Extension Homemaker's Council in the 1980s to document the experiences of American housewives nationwide. 5 volumes of text and 168 sound cassettes.
Annex 1-Size TX23 .V652x 1985

Transcripts of interviews produced at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Radcliffe. 10 volumes. There is also a printed guide to the interview transcripts.
Rock E185.86 .B544 1991

Chiefly in Ukrainian, with summaries in English. 3 volumes.
Rock DK508.833 .U552x 1990

127 interviews on microfiche. Rock Storage Microfiche HD8083 C7 A83x 1983.

Nine interviews with founding members of the not-for-profit theatre movement, produced by the Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Oral History Project, also known as Voices of the American Theatre. 3 video discs.
Rock Storage PN2266 .P487x 2003

A collection of interviews with surviving members of the New York chapter of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.

Mounted to the web by the Association for Cultural Equity in NYC, the site includes rough footage of folk music as recorded by Alan Lomax, along with interviews, lectures, radio shows and video recordings, still photos and background research prepared by Lomax in the course of his work to document folk traditions in music as shared by performers from around the world.

Includes both streaming audio and transcripts of oral history interviews recorded with members of the United Farmworkers and others key to the development of the movement to organize migrant farmworkers. NOTE: streaming audio on this site requires a Flash plugin

Oral history project covering the underground arts scene in Rhode Island, organized and compiled by Prof. Paul Buhle and his students in the Department of American Civilization at Brown. Includes audio of the interviews, brief bios on the interviewees and supplementary information.

"A few resources for teaching undergrads how to interview for Public-facing Digital Projects. Within One Term." Blog post by Brooke Bryan, Instructor of Cooperative Education at Antioch College.

On online guide by historian Linda Shopes, intended for use by students and teachers using oral history in the classroom.

This page not only describes the MHS oral history collections, but includes useful guides to establishing and executing an Oral History Project, and for Transcribing, Editing and Processing oral history interviews. The guides can be downloaded and viewed in pdf format.

An online organ for the principle professional organization for practitioners of oral history, this site includes useful information on the latest technologies and guidelines for Human Subjects and IRB Review as they pertain to oral history projects.

List of recommended digital tools for the oral historian, compiled by Doug Boyd, Director of the Louis B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries

This resource, which can be viewed on the web or downloaded as a pdf, guides the reader to oral history techniques they may use with members of their family or community, and includes a bibliography and sample forms.

A text guide developed for online use from 1993 to 1999 by Judith Moyer.

Hosted by the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University in Montreal, Stories Matter provides freely available open source digital tools for migrating oral histories to the web, including a media application that offers an alternative to traditional textual transcription.